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Reflecting its commitment to growth in the long-haul market, this year Iberia is to increase the number of seats available on its flights between Madrid and San José, in Costa Rica, by 5.5% to more than 234,000. The Spanish airline will operate more flights to the Costa Rican capital using larger aircraft, the A340-600s that have 100 seats more than the aircraft usually operated on the route.

Flights are timed for convenient connections to/from Iberia’s 32 destinations in Spain, 40 in the rest of Europe, and 11 in Africa and the Middle East.

During last week’s FITUR tourism trade fair in Madrid, Costa Rica’s Minister for Tourism, Allan Flores, said “Iberia’s increased seat supply between Madrid and San José is wonderful news for our country and reflects the excellent work done in the past several years by Iberia and the Costa Rican Tourism Institute to promote this destination and improve air links from the key European markets, chiefly Germany, Spain, France, the UK and Italy. Costa Rican entrepreneurs taking part in FITUR have remarked on the positive results obtained, and how enlarging the supply of seats can contribute to the progress of our tourist industry.”

Ángel Valdemoros, head of international sales for Iberia, said “Costa Rica is an emblematic destination for Iberia and we’re betting heavily on our growth prospects in this market, while we introduce improvements to both business and tourist class.”

Iberia holds a 43% share of the Europe-Costa Rica market, while the market share in the Business Class comes to 66%. Last year it carried nearly 186,000 passengers on the Madrid-San José route, of whom more than three-fourths made connections to or from other cities in Spain or elsewhere in Europe, most particularly France, Italy, and Germany.